Paris Saint-Germain fielded a starting XI without Lionel Messi and Neymar in their Ligue 1 fixture against Reims on Saturday evening. While the game could’ve been much more straightforward for the Parisien club, the 41st-minute red card to Sergio Ramos pushed Christophe Galtier’s side backwards.
After the sending-off of Ramos, the game required a decisive bit of play from one of PSG’s talismans to break the deadlock. However, with Neymar, after coming on as a second-half substitute, failing to wriggle past the defence and Kylian Mbappé putting the ball everywhere but into the goal, the 10-men PSG secured a 0-0 draw in their away trip to the Stade Auguste-Delaune.
Elaborating on the lack of scoring chances against the 14th-placed team in the league, PSG manager Christophe Galtier (via L’Équipe) was quoted as saying:
“Kylian Mbappé was a bit like an orphan without Leo and Ney, as I suspected. I thought that might change as the game went on. Ney didn’t start the match because he has played a lot recently. Obviously, when he came on, we saw how good a relationship they have and that is why our second-half performance was better despite us being down to 10 men.”
The boss continued:
“Unfortunately, Ney was a little bit off the mark in one-on-one situations. Kylian was up against a goalkeeper who made a decisive save. That is what it comes down to, even if we can’t be satisfied with that.”
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